The Convention on the Rights of the Child, Articles 1, 7 and 8 provides –
“Article 1
For the purposes of the present Convention, a child means every human being below the age of eighteen years unless under the law applicable to the child, majority is attained earlier.
Article 7
1. The child shall be registered immediately after birth and shall have the right from birth to a name, the right to acquire a nationality and. as far as possible, the right to know and be cared for by his or her parents.
2. States Parties shall ensure the implementation of these rights in accordance with their national law and their obligations under the relevant international instruments in this field, in particular where the child would otherwise be stateless.
Article 8
1. States Parties undertake to respect the right of the child to preserve his or her identity, including nationality, name and family relations as recognized by law without unlawful interference.
2. Where a child is illegally deprived of some or all of the elements of his or her identity, States Parties shall provide appropriate assistance and protection, with a view to re-establishing speedily his or her identity.”
For Article 7 of the Convention, Section 5 of the Child’s Rights Act 2003 (Nigeria), Article 6 paragraphs 1 and 2 of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, all contain similar provisions.
This article refers to the legal name of the child. Black’s Law Dictionary1 defines legal name as – “Legal name. A person’s full name as recognized in law. A legal name is usually acquired at birth or through a court order. …”
The right of a child to a name is violated –
-When Parent(s) / guardian(s) change the child’s name for whimsical reasons.
-When each parent goes ahead to obtain different birth certificates or birth registration documents conferring different names on the child, more so when there is an existing birth certificate that was issued after the child was born.
-When a parent goes to the child’s school to instruct that a child bears so and so name going forward, even if legal changes have not been made to the child’s name.
-When, in countries that adopt complex scientific processes such as biometrics in birth registration, a parent by some maneuver gets the child registered again with a new name. So you may have the same biometrics bringing up 2 different sets of names, or if the registration process itself is tampered with, you may have the same biometrics bringing up a new name different from the one that was registered initially.
-When parents bypass the legal process to give their children new names just because they are no longer with the other parent or are in the process of separating.
-When relations or families resent or detest the name given to a child without good reason.
-When a person tenders in court, illegally obtained birth registration documents bearing a name different from the child’s name from birth, in the hopes that the court judgment now affirms the name on the illegally obtained documents.
I am sure there are several other instances out there.
Violating a child’s identity (referring to the name now) does not make the world go round. Respect that child’s name.
Everything relating to the child must be done in the best interest of the child.
Cited
Black’s Law Dictionary
African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, Article 6 paragraphs 1 and 2
Child’s Rights Act 2003 (Nigeria), Section 5
Convention on the Rights of the Child, Articles 1, 7 and 8
Thank you.
Stephanie Orji lawyers at Heptagon & Associates, a full service law firm in Abuja, Nigeria.
17-June-2024.
- Ninth Edition, Thomson Reuters, 2009, page 1119 ↩︎